Social Realism Research

Social Realism is an international genre, which is practically popular in British and French cinema. The genre is based on real life, the story’s are fiction but the story of the film are a reflection of the world. The characters, dialogue and settings are all made up but are inspired by the real world. It has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of people on the screen.

Social Realism is probably one of the first genre’s to be introduced into cinema. It goes all the way back to 1902, where the British movie “A Reservist before the War, and After the War” by James Williamson's was made. It offered a portrait of the Boer War serviceman returning to unemployment, and was one of the first films to emphasise realism's value as social protest. There have been lots of good reviewed Social Realism films, such as, “All Or Nothing” and “A Way of Life”, which all show us perspectives of people in their daily lives facing problems and how they deal with them.

Social Realism can also been seen as auto-biography’s, they are not portrayed in the same way but they show as the lives of a person or a group of people. Showing us what they have to deal with in their lives and how it affects them and the people around them. The film of the genre can be based on practically anything, which involves people and their hardships but now adjustments can be made to the world, such as advanced fictional technology (e.g. holograms).
Social Realism films in Britain are made by many company’s, the most famous of company’s are Film 4 (Channel 4), BBC, ITV and Working Films. They have produced many of these films and we see them most commonly on their TV channels. Social Realism are a difficult genre to detect because there isn’t much to make a convection on, due to it being such a diverse genre. It can mislead the audience, if before the movie you was unaware of the genre and the movie is quiet humorous it can make the audience think it is comedy. That is why although Social Realism films are popular, people can often mistake it as a different genre, making the genre Social Realism a less famous genre compared to others.
The genre Social Realism in film is probably one of the most viewed film genres in the world. It is popular because it is so easy to relate to and it is naturalistic. It also is contains the theme of verisimilitude, which means that it shows us how things really are. Meaning that even though things like the characters are made up, the world in which they live in is real. And that is why this genre is so popular because it is real.